20160117 Viera Wetlands Birds

On Sunday, January 17, 2016, I went to Ritch Grissom Memorial Wetlands in Viera, FL, for a walk around the ponds. There are always hundreds of birds at the Wetlands so I brought my camera just in case I saw something interesting. It wasn’t a great birding day, but I did take a few photos.

The Northern Shoveler is easily identified by its large bill. This bird just brought its head out of the water after looking for food; water droplets drip from its bill and still cling to its head feathers. Examine this bird carefully; it has spots of many different colors.

Grebes dive for their food, and when they do they submerge completely for a while, surfacing feet from the place where they dove. This one was a bit waterlogged, so almost climbed onto the surface of the water as it rapidly shook its wings to dry them.

Just before I completed my walk I saw a flock of about fifty birds fly overhead. They had what looked like bright red breasts with white bellies. When I took a second look they were gone. But a third look found them flying into a distant grove of trees with ripe red berries. It took my 400mm (8x) lens to capture this general photo and to identify the birds as American Robins.
I guess I’ve become Floridized in the 21 years I’ve been down here in FL from NY because Robins are a dime a dozen in NY and during my NY days I would never have had any trouble identifying them.

I saved this Robin for last as it is my favorite Robin photo from that day. I thank Canon for my 5D Mark III and my 100-400mm zoom lens, without which I would never have been able to pull these individual birds out of the tree full of them as seen in American Robins 1 above. Bravo, Canon!

This dude (or dudette) was in the reeds with wings spread for drying in the sun. I was on the “wrong” (shady) side of him, and since I’ve taken Anhinga photos in the past, I ignored him. But when he expanded his yellow-orange throat pouch I took notice. The back-lit pouch presented a photographic opportunity I couldn’t ignore. Snap!